It's update time following my participation in the Open Qualifier yesterday.

I'd love to be able to come into the forum and report a good performance yesterday and that I'd sailed though to the final qualifying stage, but unfortunately this is no Cinderella story......yet!

My Carnoustie dream is over, I played horribly yesterday and ended up shooting 93. Yes you read correctly......93. A few facts about that.......it was the worst posted score at my qualifying venue. It was the equal worst posted score at all of the qualifiers.

So what went wrong? I recorded a live video with my coach and caddy straight after we finished and you can have a look at this:

Its a day later now so here are my thoughts a little removed from the event.

PREPARATION:

Over the previous weekend my preparation was very good and I was striking the ball very well. My coach and I had made some good but minor changes to the golf swing on Saturday and I had them well in hand in a short practice session on Sunday.

Short game was feeling very solid and I'd tested at my best levels for the season. My putting stroke was feeling good and I was very happy with where I was with my pace control.

I'd had a practice round at Frilford Heath the week before and I felt like I knew enough about the course and the conditions and additionally my coach who caddied for me had really good course knowledge.

I arrived with plenty of time, however I wasn't able to go and hit balls before the round as the driving range was quite distant from the first tee and was accessed via a shuttle system that I was concerned wouldn't get me back by my tee time, so my full swing warm up consisted of a session in the nets.

However, it is now obvious that preparation could have been better. The really good progress we had made in swing changes over the previous weekend, just didn't hold up under the pressure of this event and they need more time to become a part of my default swing.

My previous demons in short game were in the back of my mind and influenced how I went about playing these shots during the day, resulting in some poor execution of these shots.

NERVES:

I'd never been as nervous as I was before the round yesterday and when I was at home in the morning I was like a cat on a hot tin roof. Waiting around for the whole day to play at 2pm did me no favours at all. Once I was at the golf course I felt more at ease but even still I was nervous, more so than I would be in a normal event or normal round of golf. I'm not sure whether this hampered my performance or not, but I do get a feeling just before I hit a shot (some people refer to this feeling as being in the zone) that I now its going to be a good shot. I didn't have many of those feelings yesterday and as such never really felt comfortable over a shot. If I think about it in detail, I feel like I had a fear of failure over most shots as opposed to a positive commitment to what I was trying to do. That is a massive learning for me from yesterday and something I need to address.

THE ROUND:

During the round I only had one real blow out hole, an 8 down 14 which included an unplayable lie and a bad short game shot compounded by a further error in the bunker. As the mistakes mounted that hole my focus waned leading to the dreaded snowman. The rest of the round was a myriad of bogeys, pars and doubles and at no point did I really get any momentum of good play.

My playing partners were also not playing great and early in the round the other guys had a couple of lost balls, one had to play two provisional of one tee and thus we lost 5 minutes on both occasions looking for balls. This had us on the clock and the company of a referee for most of the rest of our round. Whilst this shouldn't be a problem, it was my first experience of this and definitely made my rhythm much quicker, possibly adding to the issues I was already having.

LEARNING:

I'm not sure of everything I have learned from yesterday yet. Obviously its been on my mind pretty much constantly since. It will probably take a little while to sink in and take what I can from yesterday.

The obvious question is has this weakened my resolve and the answer is no. Nothing I saw yesterday made me think that what I am aiming to do is unachievable. I am firm in my belief that I am more than capable and so much so that even during a time of massive disappointment during the last few holes yesterday, all I could think about was when can I do this again, I wanted another chance.

So with all of the self doubt that yesterday creates, the questions of am I crazy to be attempting this, I need to put all that to the side and resolve to work even harder than before, to take the experience I had yesterday and improve on it next time. The only way is up (or down in scores).

Very timely, on the way home from work today I listened to a podcast that puts everything into perspective that happened yesterday. Everyone who plays golf or lives life can learn from this. It’s from golf science lab and features a guy who works with a load of guys on the pga tour as well as with the University of Alabama athletics programme with Nick Saban, a legendary American football coach. Here’s the link and in the words of Molly Meldrum.....do yourselves a favour:

Very timely, on the way home from work today I listened to a podcast that puts everything into perspective that happened yesterday. Everyone who plays golf or lives life can learn from this. It’s from golf science lab and features a guy who works with a load of guys on the pga tour as well as with the University of Alabama athletics programme with Nick Saban, a legendary American football coach. Here’s the link and in the words of Molly Meldrum.....do yourselves a favour:

Best quote for mine was “success doesn’t happen to you, it happens because of you”

Enjoy and I defy you to not be dying to get to the golf course after you’ve listened to this.

Have you done any one on one work with a sports psychologist?

Mate of mine, years ago, was struggling as a competitive surfer. He kept falling off on scoring waves in competition. He went to a sports psychologist who worked out his thought process was "don't fall off" so the focus of his thought was falling off... SP recommended he change his thought to 'ride it the beach', and within two months he'd qualified to the tour, with average scores going from 6 n 7 to high 9s. Why? Because he was no longer falling off mid wave. All because of how he thought...

Everyday life application... If we have to remember something, most people say "don't forget", so they end up forgetting, because the focus of thought is on not forgetting. Instead, say and think "remember to ..." so thought focus changes to remembering and unsurprisingly most people will remember the task, item, etc. with an increased frequency of over 80%

From reading your last game synopsis, it sounds like a cognitive training with a good sports psychologist might help you.

You were too nervous for sure and that will pass, I have been chipping away trying to win a golf event for many years. I have to take 2 weeks off and travel 1500 kms to attend, this would be a big build up for me and does make me nervous. As the years pass I lost my nervousness Last year I played well for the first two days and was seeded in the last group. The nervousness got me again and had a rough one. This year I am ready its all part of the process bro.

I got so much out of your youtube video you can not understand just how much I gained by watching / listening to your every thought even listening to you breath before playing a shot.
We have a very good local pro at our golf club but the only time he opens his mouth is when you put money in his hand.

​You are an inspiration to me, keep going and for what its worth you look like a seasoned pro out on the course.

Practice rounds are on YouTube. That’s where all my major video content is. We just used Facebook for the live videos before and after the event on Monday to use their live capabilities and we have more followers on Facebook so was hoping to reach a bigger audience.

You were too nervous for sure and that will pass, I have been chipping away trying to win a golf event for many years. I have to take 2 weeks off and travel 1500 kms to attend, this would be a big build up for me and does make me nervous. As the years pass I lost my nervousness Last year I played well for the first two days and was seeded in the last group. The nervousness got me again and had a rough one. This year I am ready its all part of the process bro.I got so much out of your youtube video you can not understand just how much I gained by watching / listening to your every thought even listening to you breath before playing a shot. We have a very good local pro at our golf club but the only time he opens his mouth is when you put money in his hand. ​You are an inspiration to me, keep going and for what its worth you look like a seasoned pro out on the course.

Wow Puttovr, thanks for your kind words. My missus and I have been working so hard the last few weeks doing all the filming, editing etc it takes to get all the videos up and she did a Herculean effort to get them done before the event on Monday. As you can see our channel is in its infancy and so as well as nerves on the golf course I’m pretty self conscious about putting myself out there like this and a little anxious about how such transparency to my game and thinking and technique are perceived by the “masses” with respect to the lofty goals I’ve set myself. So when we get feedback like this it is a massive boost to us. I’m so glad you enjoyed the videos and even more glad you had the good grace to give us such glowing praise. Thanks heaps, it means loads to us!!!

If there’s more you want to see or know about, we are really grateful for any of your suggestions and where possible we will try to accommodate with a new video.